Monday, March 24, 2014

Rise of the Forgebuilding: T/A Mobility

She's a fiery, foxy lady!

Note: Some of the deck ideas are quite legitimate and have success on constructed queue, others are really fun to play but lack the raw power to match up with the best players playing the best decks. It is up to you to decide which.

So, a new bag of 100 toys. Emberwind Evoker is a really fun and powerful card worth building around, with a reasonable scaling in both her body and ability. The jump to +4/+4 in particular is really nice. She plays incredibly well with Storm Bringer, and ranges from good to great with anything with mobility.But, what's the best way to play her.

While Mono-Tempys is surprisingly good (7/7 Avatar!) you are most likely to see N/T Mobility. Doomwing Drake- Windcaller Shaman shenanigans have always been popular, and with Cercee and Byzerak Drake you have nice additions to the deck. However, I've never been excited about having to level Windcaller Shaman, and a 7/3 Doomwing Drake is still really fragile.

Instead, why not use the most dominant mobility creature in the game, Brightsteel Gargoyle? In the past with Windborn Hellion it wasn't worth going into Alloyin just to play Gargoyle, but another great asset as been added to mobility's arsenal that makes U/A worth playing.

U/A Mobility:

Core: Emberwind Envoker, Storm Bringer, Windborn HellionEmberwind is a powerhouse, quickly making our mobility creatures much harder to deal with. Storm Bringer is the heart of the deck, setting off both Envoker and Hellion while you constantly try to set him up for favorable trades. Generally play Storm Bringer when you see them, unless there is a play to be made. Windborn Hellion is incredibly strong if played into an active board. People have underestimated Windborn by trying to play him onto an empty board; Realize the difference between playing a 2/8 and an 5/11 before jamming him down.

Brightsteel in this deck has an important role. Because of his defender clause he is hard to take down, meaning more procs for Envoker and Hellion. He also provides us with good trades with what plays like a 5/7 body is played correctly.
Alloying Strategist helps make good trades with the attack boost, benefit greatly from Emberwind, and has strong synergy following Gargoyle or Zyx around. Zyx at 4/6 isn't that impressive, but with two attack Envoker buffs make him do a lot of damage and quickly give him a respectable badonkadonk. Fervant Assault helps mobilize Envoker and Hellion for self-buffing, makes Storm Bringer incredibly threatening, and is great on Gargoyles.

Support: Everflame Phoenix, Thundergale Invoker, Warmonger's Mod

Everflame Phoenix gives us a solid 7 attack mobility creature that we really don't mind playing because 2.4 Phoenix is so great, so we play when necessary. Thundergale Invoker rarely sees play, but when he does it's for massive blowouts or game ending plays. Always keep in mind for when Storm Bringer doesn't locate itself correctly to set yourself up, since thinking moves ahead is what will separate the good players from the great.Warmonger's Mod is a great finisher with insane synergy on Zyx and Gargoyle, but often is just played in a "Remove this creature and you win, fail to and he moves and I win" situation. Warmonger's can also be used to kill off a Grimgaunt or Thundersaur that is trying to get out of hand.

If you don't have all these cards Rimehorn's big body helps make good trades, something we typically rely on Phoenix and Gargoyle to do. However, adding more mobility creatures is not a good idea since you will never play them when you have better mobility creatures in hand.
In regards to removal Metasculpt is likely the best card to consider, since the biggest threats are growers. However, when using Metasculpt you are relying on good draws to beat problem creatures, but generally the solution is to get more aggressive and race the opponent. Sap is an interesting option since it shuts down things like Grimgaunt and Thundersaurs, but you have to level early. The reality is you have nothing on board and your opponent has a full board you've lost, but stopping gross threats before they start is attractive.

Turn 1 Storm Bringer is always good to toss out, as is Gargoyle, because both are really hard to for opponent to lock down. Try not to jam down Emberwind or Windborn without a mobility guy on the board. Phoenix and Strategist are played to promote good trades, and Fervant Assault is a quality combat trick to either keep Emberwind/Hellion alive and/or kill something immediately (Leafkin, for example). Zyx is a good play when need to be aggressive due to matchup, since he does the most damage, and prefers Emberwind over Windborn. Thundergale and Warmonger's Mod should either win the game or make the opponent want to concede when you play them, and should only very rarely be played in PL1.

In matchups this deck is flexible. If the opponent is trying to be aggressive it turns out Phoenix and Gargoyle is a quality late game. If the opponent is trying to stall to late game then Zyx becomes more powerful. If the opponent is playing mass removal Emberwind > Hellion because everything you play is a potentially huge threat. If enemy is lacking removal then putting a Fervant Assault on a Windborn Hellion usually does the trick.

The reason this deck is really good is because it's playing 30 individually strong cards that work well together and cover most weaknesses. It's a deck I really hope gets a spot in top tier meta because there are a lot of decision points with mobility, particularly playing around Thundergale. The biggest weakness is a lack high attack creatures in PL2, which I believe makes Drix the hardest matchup, which might kill it's long term potential.

My IGN is Pwndnoob, you can find me in Solforge Chat under Mr. Big Stuff and on Reddit as Pwndnoob, and if you play me online I'm probably still trying to make Stasis Warden a thing. Comments and questions as always are appreciated. Set 2 has been fantastic, and I will be gladly posting more ideas on the decks nobody is playing (some time for good reason). Have a nice day!

2 comments:

Thanks for great insights! I like the breakdown AND the 'how to play' sections a lot, really valuable.

Would be helpful if you broke your abbreviations down (maybe on a 'definition' or 'terms' sidebar?) like N/T, U/A, etc. I know it would be a reach to ask for links to cards, but maybe you could have pics of the cards in the deck? (Not sure that's allowed by Solforge folks, but doesn't hurt to ask.) I don't know all the cards being discussed.